Lead Recruiter, US & Europe

Zilliz is a fast-growing startup developing the industry’s leading vector database for enterprise-grade AI. Founded by the engineers behind Milvus, the world’s most popular open-source vector database, the company builds next-generation database technologies to help organizations quickly create AI applications. On a mission to democratize AI, Zilliz is committed to simplifying data management for AI applications and making vector databases accessible to every organization.

About the Role

We are looking for a Lead Recruiter to own recruiting across the United States and Europe and help build the teams behind Zilliz's next stage of growth. 

This is a senior individual contributor role with broad ownership across both recruiting strategy and execution. You will support technical and commercial functions, including Engineering, Product, GTM, and other business teams.

You will work closely with company and functional leaders to understand business priorities, shape hiring strategies, and deliver against them. We are looking for someone who can think strategically about where and how we hire while remaining highly hands-on in the market.

This role is based in our Redwood City office and is expected to work onsite at least three days per week.

What You’ll Do

• Own recruiting strategy and execution across the US and Europe, supporting both technical and commercial hiring.
• Partner with leadership and hiring managers to translate business priorities and headcount plans into clear hiring priorities and recruiting strategies.
• Lead full-cycle recruiting across functions and seniority levels, building strong pipelines through direct sourcing, talent mapping, referrals, and other channels.
• Bring talent-market insights into hiring decisions, including candidate availability, compensation, competitive landscape, and location considerations.
• Prioritize searches and recruiting resources based on business impact, urgency, and pipeline health, while continuously improving recruiting processes and outcomes.
• Manage our external recruiting agency network, evaluate partner performance and delivery quality, and maintain an effective roster of search partners as hiring needs evolve.

What We’re Looking For

• 6+ years of full-cycle recruiting experience, ideally within fast-growing technology companies.
• Experience recruiting across both technical and commercial functions, with the ability to quickly understand different talent markets and candidate profiles.
• A strong track record of sourcing, engaging, and closing high-performing passive candidates in competitive markets.
• Experience partnering directly with senior leaders and hiring managers, with the judgment to advise, challenge, and calibrate when needed.
• Ability to connect recruiting priorities with broader business and organizational needs rather than approaching hiring one requisition at a time.
• Strong understanding of recruiting metrics and talent-market data, and the ability to use both to improve hiring decisions and outcomes.
• Experience supporting hiring across the US and Europe or other international markets.

How You Operate

• High ownership. You take responsibility for outcomes, identify problems early, and move quickly to find solutions.
• Business-minded. You invest time in understanding the company, product, organization, and business context behind hiring decisions.
• Adaptable. You are comfortable working through changing priorities, ambiguity, and different types of hiring challenges as the company grows.
• Collaborative and low ego. You work openly with hiring managers, HR colleagues, and other recruiters and care more about reaching the right outcome than protecting a narrow scope of responsibility.

Nice to Have

• Experience recruiting for enterprise software, databases, data infrastructure, developer tools, cloud infrastructure, or AI.
• Experience supporting both Engineering and GTM organizations within the same company.
• Experience hiring senior or leadership-level talent.
• Experience managing external recruiting agencies or executive search partners and evaluating vendor performance.

Zilliz is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.